Brendan Fevola broke down in tears Thursday after hearing the heartbreaking way a boy was bullied following the tragic death of his father.
The former AFL star, 43, was overcome with emotion as she heard young Ben’s struggles from his devastated mother Sarah on The Fox radio show Fifi, Fev & Nick.
Sarah, who is from Melbourne, revealed her son Ben has been battling bullying after his father’s tragic death from cancer.
She said her classmates have been cruelly using her father’s death to mock him, and the heartbreaking story brought Brendan to tears.
‘Ben goes to school every day and looks forward to playing basketball with his friends at lunchtime. But recently, over the last year, some of the other kids have made fun of him. In fact, they are picking on him because of his father’s death,” Sarah explained.
“They basically make fun of him (or, in a way, make fun of him) about his father. Like, “Oh, at least I have a dad” or “I’m going to go home and my dad will be there today.”
A visibly excited Fevola couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I’m a little choked here,” he said.
Brendan Fevola appears in the photo overcome with emotion after hearing the story of a boy who has been bullied by the death of his father from cancer.
The AFL legend couldn’t believe what he was hearing when the boy’s mother revealed the words her son’s schoolmates had been using to take him sledging.
‘That could possibly be the worst thing you could say to a child. Upsetting a child who lost his father to cancer… I don’t know what I would do as a father.
‘The poor kid has to deal with it anyway, and he knows he doesn’t have a father, but reminding kids that he plays basketball… I don’t know what he would have done if he was a kid. ‘
The panel then invited Ben to be part of their Underdogs initiative, which sees children who have been excluded from sports due to bullying and health issues from Aussie Rules and basketball teams.
The Underdogs football team raised the curtain on the clash between Carlton and Port Adelaide at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium in July, with an Underdogs basketball team set to play at half-time of the Sydney National Basketball League match Kings against Melbourne United at the John Cain Arena on Thursday night.
‘We would love to give Ben a beautiful and fabulous memory of being part of our Underdogs. Is this something Ben would love to do? -Fifi asked.
‘Oh, definitely! “He loves basketball, it’s his great outlet,” Sarah responded.
Fevola recently revealed that a brutal injury landed him in the emergency room after starring in his soccer team’s grand final in September.
The former Carlton and Brisbane forward laced up his boots in the Diamond Valley 35 decider, scoring five goals in his side’s dominant 70-point win over Williamstown.
The radio show Fifi, Fev and Nick (presenters pictured) invited the boy to be part of their Underdogs basketball team, which features children who have missed out on the sport due to bullying.
However, the victory took its toll, as Fevola was left bleeding from an open wound from surgery to remove a mole from his back.
‘It was a bad one. They got everything. I had eight stitches in my back and the doctor said I wasn’t allowed to play any sports.
“I didn’t tell him I’d be playing in the Grand Final on Sunday so I thought I’d run the gauntlet.” And yes, I had a little bit of back pain throughout the game.
‘I say, oh, I’ll take a quick shower, so I took all my football stuff out of the bag and said, oh God, my back hurts a little bit!’ I took off my jersey and on my ‘5’ the top half of the 5 was all blood. I go, oh, is this (blood)?
‘I got in the shower and ripped it off…I looked in the mirror and there was a huge, huge hole in my back.
“I said, ‘ARGH! I have a hole in my back,” and they (Fev’s family) said, “Don’t go in the shower, you need to go to the ER right away, it will heal.” my Uber Eats because I’m hungry”…? Alex says, “Go to the ER! It’s open… you can’t have (your back) open.”